tial wealth had become
fully unsealed. I was one of that band of light-hearted, haphazard
pioneers who, rejoicing in youthful energy and careless of their own
interests, unwittingly laid the foundation upon which so many great
fortunes have been built.

An ancient myth relates how the god Dionysus decreed that everything
touched by Midas, the Phrygian king, should turn into gold, but the
effect was so disastrous that Midas begged for a reversal of the
decree. The prayer was granted, conditionally upon the afflicted king
bathing in the River Pactolus.

South Africa may, in a sense, be paralleled with Midas both as regards
the bane of gold and the antidote of bathing but her Pactolus has been
one of blood.

Midas again got into trouble by, refusing to adjudge in the matter of
musical merit between Pan and Apollo, and this time was punished by
having his ears changed into those of an ass.

Our choice lies before us; may we avoid the ass's ears by boldly making
a decision. May we evade a worse thing by unhesitatingly giving our
award in favor of Apollo.

With this apologia I submit my humble gleanings from fields on which no
more the sun will shine, to the indulgent sympathy of readers.

W. C. S.

PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA, January, 1913.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Foreword--My father's family--"Old Body"--Dualla--A cruel experiment--"Old
Body"--and the goose--Cook and kitchen-maid--Scull and monkey--My mother's
family--Abbey view--The Bock of Cashel--Captain Meagher and early chess
Sir Dominic Corrigan--"Old Mary" and the sugar--Naval ambitions--Harper
Twelvetree and the burial agency

CHAPTER II

Improved health--Jimmy Kinsella--Veld food--I abscond--Father Healy on
conversion--Father O'Dwyer and his whip--Confession--Construction of a
volcano--The Fenian outbreak--Departure for South Africa--The tuneful
soldier--Chess at sea--Madeira A gale--The Asia

CHAPTER III

Arrival at Cape Town--Port Elizabeth--First encounter with big game
Grahamstown--Severe thunderstorm--King William's Town Natives and their
ponies--Social peculiarities--Farming--The annual trek--Camp-life
Surf-bathing--Self-sacrificing attitude of Larry O'Toole--Capture of
an ant-bear--The coast scenery--A moral shock--School Chief Toise--Rainy
seasons--Flooded rivers

CHAPTER IV

Trip to the Transkei--Tiyo Soga and his family--Trip to the seaside--The
Fynns--Wild dogs--Start as a sheep farmer--My camp burnt out--First
com